Various fuel cell vehicles have been proposed. The fuel cell vehicles are electric vehicles in which a fuel cell is provided. The fuel cell generates electric power through chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.
In such electric vehicles (fuel cell vehicles), a control needs to be executed to start and stop the operation of a fuel cell system (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2004-311222). For example, in general electric vehicles, an ignition switch is provided, and a controller executes a valve-opening control for a shut valve provided in a pipe for supplying fuel gas to a fuel cell when the ignition switch is operated (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-351667).
For example, in a known fuel cell system, a shut valve and an ignition switch are connected to a controller that includes a central processing unit (CPU), memory, and the like. A control program and the like are stored in the memory, and are used to control the shut valve based on a control signal from the ignition switch. In this fuel cell system, when the ignition switch is operated, the operation of the fuel cell system is started and stopped.
In the movable bodies such as the above-described electric vehicles, the operation of the fuel cell system is started and stopped only by operating the ignition switch. However, a control that starts and stops the operations of systems provided in the electric vehicle individually is not executed, or cannot be executed.
That is, in the electric vehicles, the operation of the entire fuel cell system is started and stopped based on only the instruction provided by the ignition switch. For example, there is no electric vehicle in which a driver can intentionally control the state of electric power generation in the fuel cell, taking into account the SOC (State of Charge) of a battery, or the driver can change the state of electric power generation according to driveability.
In the fuel cell system described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-351667, the generation of electric power cannot be intentionally limited, though the operation of the fuel cell system can be started and stopped using the ignition switch. For example, it is not possible to provide an instruction to start or stop the operation of the fuel cell system, independently of running operation of the vehicle.